Well, oops, UPS. A logistical glitch, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is attributing to a delivery snafu by UPS, caused parts of a drone designed to monitor marine life and ocean conditions to end up far from its intended destination.

Photographs of a dead sperm whale and a cache of emails obtained by Greenpeace show how officials in the Obama administration attempted to suppress knowledge of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil blowout’s impact on wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico.

Excuse me, folks, but the weather is trying to tell us something. Listen carefully, and you can almost hear a parched, raspy voice whispering, “What part of ‘hottest month ever’ do you people not understand?”

The Senate has moved to close a loophole that allows fishing concerns in America’s corner of the Pacific Ocean to engage in finning—that’s when you catch a shark, cut off its fin and dump the mutilated, still living-but-not-for-long animal back in the water so it can suffer to death.

Americans get half of their shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, but that was before it was contaminated by 190 million gallons of oil and 2 million gallons of chemical dispersant. Shrimp season officially started Monday, but it will be some time before we know whether the ravaged Gulf waters—and American appetites—are up to it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declared this winter the warmest on record for the Northern Hemisphere. So far, 2007 appears likely to rank as the warmest overall year. Annual temperatures have broken the record in 10 of the last dozen years.

Bush & Co. have apparently been muzzling climate scientists from speaking forthrightly to the public about global warming. Shocker, right?
Perhaps they thought last week’s head fake on giving more free rein to NASA scientists would throw reporters off the scent….